It’s true, I haven’t posted since Monday. But, I also didn’t workout Tuesday or Wednesday, either. Tuesday I had dinner with some friends, Wednesday I was just not in the mood. I was exhausted and needed another day. Thankfully there was nothing really big scheduled – just a 30 minute easy and a 30 minute hill / speed treadmill workout, of which I’ll probably transfer one or both to Friday and Sunday.

I was so excited about today’s workout, though. It was my first tempo run of the training plan – 5 miles, including a warm-up, 3 miles at 9:10 per mile, and a cool down. As I’ve found that a good warm-up is important if I want to maintain a pace that fast, I did ~ 1.5 mile warm-up, 2 miles at 9:13 per mile, a mile at 8:57 per mile (to average it out a little…and because I could!), and a ~ .5 mile cool down.

There’s always a question of ‘what can I do’. Let me tell you, I am SO excited to know that I could do this. I did it! Really! I felt so loose and so good afterward.

Then I came home and did a metric ton of dishes. As many as I could do before Chris finished making dinner. And now I’m completely exhausted and going to bed asap.

Swam again tonight. Went 35 minutes instead of 30 for two reason. One, I forgot to take my watch to the pool. Two, I kept having to wait for kids playing in the lap lane. Yeah, I really love that. Because the life guards have so much else to do…like make sure people aren’t running, make sure people aren’t wearing street clothes in the pools, make sure the babies all have swim diapers on. Oh wait, they don’t do that either.

Enough ranting.

I tried a bunch of toys today. I used the kick board. This allows me to practice breathing in general, as well as try to breathe on both sides. Unfortunately I still have a really hard time breathing to the left. I just can’t turn my head far enough. Tonight I also tried the foam, hourglass shaped thing that you put between your legs. This makes you swim without your legs at all. I found it really helps you to get the rotation in your trunk that you’re supposed to get while swimming…unfortunately this still didn’t get my left side to turn enough to breathe that way. But I really tried. Because you’re supposed to be able to breathe on both sides.

I also spent some time with the paddles. They are really great for helping you get your stroke right. Of course, I also did a few laps without any toys to see how they were helping.

The lesson I learned? Swimming with the foam thingy was really easy! My breathing was easier, my stroke was easier…I hope that working with that about once a week makes swimming as a whole easier! I could use that!

My next goal for swimming? Turning. I knew how to do that once upon a time I was mistakenly signed up for swim team because the nice lady doing registration really didn’t understand I was a 13 year-old that needed basic swim instruction. For about a week and a half, I knew how to turn while doing laps. (Then the swim team coach figured out I shouldn’t be there).

There’s nothing quite like leaving your house in the early light, wondering if the weather will hold, and heading out on a long run. The air is still chilly, but at this time of the year, you know it will be almost too warm by the time you finish. Living in the country as I do, I also have a good amount of apprehension about what I might run into while on my run.

First there are the dogs. They are country dogs and hunting dogs – they protect their farms. Sure, some of them are nice. But some of them are in 10 foot chain link cages. And I’m glad they are, because they do not look or sound nice.

Then there are the other things – moose, mountain lion, and while it’s unlikely, it’s possible – bear. I’m more worried about the bear and moose while I’m trail running. Running by cow-filled, golden fields listening to the trickle of water early in the morning, I’m only too aware that it would be a prime location for mountain lion to have a morning stroll down by the river.

But as always, I didn’t run into anything unexpected except some horses outside their fence. I probably never will.

I think this apprehension is good – it keeps me from getting too comfortable prior to my run, and makes every run a new experience from me. Not getting too comfortable before my run will help come race day, when, no matter what, I’m going to be nervous. And as for every run being a new experience, making sure running, and especially your planned runs, don’t get boring can be a real challenge for runners. Having a running buddy or a running group is a good solution for this.

A good playlist with an adequate amount of run-time is also a good solution. With this, however, I take out one headphone while running outside. It helps to enjoy the sounds around you, plus it’s important to be aware of your surroundings. If that mountain lion ever is there, I certainly want to be able to hear it coming. And you don’t want to be surprised when the truck pulls by you at 60 miles an hour – you want to hear it coming.

When I’m running in the city, I run between fire hydrants. I’ll pick one, and run faster from that hydrant to the next, and then take it easy until the next one, repeating this for the mid-section of my run or until my brain gets distracted by something else.

My scheduled run for yesterday and moved to today was 6 miles at a 10:40 per mile pace. I did about 6.2 miles at closer to a 10:20 per mile pace. It was a beautiful morning. One week of training down, twelve to go.

Let’s establish something. I am not one of those runners who will only go outside in perfect weather. While I do prefer it, I’ll run in wind, rain, or snow. I have appropriate pants, jackets, hats to run in all sorts of weather, and have run in all sorts of weather. What I will not do is run in any situation where I think there might be lightning.

First of all, I’m clumsy, and hearing lightening while I’m running could seriously make me fall on my face. Second, I refuse to be a runner who gets struck by lightning. Especially after reading a couple articles like this or this. It would probably never happen, but I prefer not to find out.

That’s a very long lead in to tell you I didn’t do my planned workout today. I was all ready to do my planned 6 miles and looked outside. On one side of my house there was a pretty nasty storm with visible lightning. On the other side there was an almost equally nasty looking storm, no visible lightning, but threatening. I really didn’t want to miss my workout, but I didn’t want to do it inside.

Went to the gym and ran 30 minutes easy.

I’m going to rearrange the next few days. I’ll get up early, do my 6 miles tomorrow, and make Monday easy.

Today is a rest day. As Fridays should be.

I’ve gotten several running related emails today. One was about the PF Chang’s Rock & Roll Marathon & Half-Marathon in January, offering a sweepstakes for entry fee, lodging, food, VIP stuff, etc. Don’t worry, I entered.

The second one I got was a very touching and thoughtful email. My first half-marathon was put on by the folks at Everyone Runs, Everyone Walks in Tucson a couple of years ago. Email as follows:

“Dear Friends of Everyone Runs, Everyone Walks:

Yesterday I watched a story on CNN about depression among the unemployed and how exercise somewhat helps to alleviate the low feelings.  With that in mind, I would like to extend an invitation to up to 25 unemployed people to run or walk at no charge in our September 26 Catalina State Park Trail Run.  Simply send me an email to _____, and I will respond to the first 25 with a free entry.  Please don’t be shy.  I really want to do this for you and our community in this unfortunate time.”

Really, I am so touched by this. How absolutely wonderful of them to realize entry fees can be prohibitively expensive!

(If you are in the Tucson area, unemployed, and actually want the email address to ask for this, please let me know).